Zoo and a Master of Ninjas

To celebrate the job and get to spend some time together we went up to Portland for a night.  We stayed in a nice little hotel, tried to swim in the FREEZING pool, I am not one for cold water, and went to the zoo!  It was a fairly chilly day, but we practically had the place to ourselves!  It didn't even rain a drop while we were there and the hail only came as we were walking out to the car.

Lookin at the bears.  

The Portland zoo is in such a pretty area.

 We had to get a picture of the bobcat - Go MSU bobcats!

Emry would turn and give us an energetic "whoa" for the animals she liked.

I think the alligator was a favorite. 

Hello Mr. Sea Lion

It was a fun little getaway. 

Bonus Pictures:

The boys regularly bring out ALOT of books and read them on the couch with blankets, half dressed.

Emry now joins in and has to have her blanket arranged just right on her legs.  And, yes, that is a very safe toy to have in your mouth.

Bonus Saying:

I will always remember this.  

Asher and I were driving home from picking something up at the grocery store.  I looked at him in the rear view mirror and then back at the road.  He said, 

"Whoa! Momma, look at me again like that."  I looked in the mirror at him again and he said, almost in awe, 

"Momma, you are a master of ninjas when you do that."  

Guess it doesn't get any better than that.  It's one of the biggest compliments a person could be in his mind.  Now when I'm down on myself I can just think "I am a master of ninjas".

The Verdict Is In...

...we're moving to Montana!  

I will try to sum up this not-so-short-of-a-process in a shorter post...yeah right.  

Step 1: The Job Market. I wrote about it here. Glad to have that over with.  Even though it was very stressful, I am realizing now what a blessing it was to have that system to help in the search.

Step 2: We waited for calls.  It is an odd feeling to just have to wait for the calls that will play a huge part in your future.  Isaac got a few flyouts fairly quickly.  Everyone kept telling us to just wait, that there was still time and that more would come.  We skeptically agreed.  When more did come, they really came.  Isaac was gone ALOT.  I think from about January 21 to March 9 he was gone for a total of 21 days.  One of those times he flew into the Eugene airport at 10:30 pm and had to be back there at 4 am the next morning.  I am so grateful for friends who sat over here while the kids slept and I went to pick Isaac up.  5:45 am seems to be the only time the Eugene airport has departing flights so we made alot of 4 am trips.  We'd load the  kids straight from their beds and into the car while they were half asleep still and drop Isaac off. Then we'd come back home and they would all go right back to sleep without a peep.  They were so good through the process!   Sometimes Asher still asks, "Is Daddy at the school or the airport?" It was a busy time, but when all is said and done, I think everything was handled pretty well.  

Step 3:  Decision Time.

He ended up having a few offers.  Now, I know, I am the worst decision maker in the world. Together, with Isaac, decision making is not our strongest point- especially when the decisions have to be fast.  Everything came down to one weekend.  He got back from a flyout on Saturday, we would find out if they were going to offer us anything on Monday and he had to tell the other places our answer Tuesday morning. 

That Sunday and Monday were stressful!  It came down to two places for us, one in Tennessee and one in Montana.  Long story short, and we both agree this is probably the hardest decision we've ever made, but Montana it is!!!

After a period where I second guessed and doubted our decision (we'll skip over this part, not my best moments) I am ready to move forward and make the best of it! 

We are feeling blessed, nervous, and excited!

And because there must be pictures, here are Emry's first pigtails ever:

We can't handle the cuteness!  Kason and Asher call the pigtails her rhinoceros ears and call her a rhino when she has them in.  They usually bring me the elastics and say, "let's make her a rhino!"  

6

Kason turned 6!

Six sounds so much older than five.  Maybe it's because alot of activities have an age cut-off of five.

Or maybe it's because it takes two hands to show how old he is now.  

Whatever the reason, he is getting older!

Isaac was on a fly-out on Kason's birthday.  So, I felt the need to still try to make the day as special as possible.

The kids woke up to balloons and crepe paper.  That alone was pretty exciting.

We snapped some pictures

 These two really are best buds.  They play together all day, and for the most part, do really well.

We also went to the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics.  This our new favorite place we've found.  I can't believe we haven't found it for this long, but it's the new "treat" that's begged for.  I'll admit, it is a pretty cool place, by far the best open gym place we've been to here.

Rocky and Kason getting ready to jump off the pirate ship into the foam

Emry has become quite the fast walker.  She really doesn't care where I am either, she just takes off.  Here she is falling taking out a competitor for her area.

Asher (remember, he's all talk) hasn't quite worked up to daring to stand to jump off the pirate ship, but he sits and either gets pushed or slides off.

Group picture on the beam.  Look at Asher's face.  He was so scared to be up there, he's gripping Kason and Rocky and making shrieking noises the entire time.

future gymnast?!

 When Isaac got back in town we opened presents.  Kason was pretty excited to get this present from Gramma and Grampa.

This was his reaction to getting a bow and arrow from us.

I feel like this cake was a major fail.  I got more sick than I've been in a long time (thank goodness it was between Isaac's flyouts) and so Kason's cake kept getting pushed back.  Isaac finally made it and I tried to decorate it.  It's a snake, and I had it pictured alot better in my mind, but I think he still liked it.

A little bit about Kason:

He has a very sweet and tender heart.

He can be a bit sensitive.

He is very mature, and generally very obedient and my biggest helper.

He really thinks of other.

He's very mature, our joke lately is that he seems like a wise old man in a 6 year old body.

He can be quite competitive.

He is a crazy dancer and singer (usually while watching his reflection in the TV).  I have to regularly clean the spit marks off the TV cause he sings and dances so vigorously in front of it.

He loves to draw.  He will draw a picture of what's going on that day or what he's feeling. 

An example of his drawing, Buzz Lightyear:

He is a great big brother:

This picture makes my heart happy.

Funny story:  At church on Sunday a girl Kason's age just came up to him and gave him a long hug and almost a kiss on the cheek.  The whole time Kason was completely still, his torso rigid and arched, leaning away from her, with his arms down to his sides.  He did not know what to do or what to make of the situation.  

Life Lately

I always wait too long to blog and then I have a bunch of things that I want to put in to remember and it becomes one huge, long post.  So, here we go. 

We went to a roller derby!

It's been on my bucket list of things to do here for years.

It was worth the wait and alot of fun to watch, despite being crammed into tiny bleachers with kids.    

It's always fun to go with friends 

Isaac's birthday!

Isaac requested a cake our friend, who is an amazing baker, had previously made.  I did my best to recreate the chocolate-y goodness and we were happy with it.

These kiddos sure love their dad

Also, lesson learned: Asher cannot keep a secret.  

Really, I wasn't surprised by this at all.  The kids and I went to get Isaac's birthday present, a watch.  I had to bring them and so I debated about just not saying anything and hoping that would make it a small enough deal that Asher wouldn't say anything about it.  But, I decided to remind him not to say anything.  So, the car ride home was filled with "don't say anything to Daddy about presents, don't tell him what it is, don't even tell him we got a present".  

Isaac had been home for 5 minutes when Asher was sitting on his lap and said, "Kason is going to go find Daddy's watch present!"  

Kason about had a heart attack, he couldn't believe Asher would do that.

The next two days it became a game of Isaac asking Asher what his present was and Asher truthfully and innocently saying with a big smile on his face: "a watch!"

 Walking has clicked for Emry girl and I'd say she walks more than she crawls now.  She's 14 months.  I still am not used to seeing her just come toddling around the corner all bowlegged taking tiny little steps.  So, of course I watch her walk all the way down the hallway and take tons of pictures.  She grabs some toy cones the boys have and puts them on her hands and walks around.  I guess she's learned well from watching all the sword fights.   That, or two lotion bottles seem to be her go to thing right now.  

Happy Valentine's Day

Isaac was on a flyout and was supposed to get home at 4pm, but because of plane's missing parts (what?!) and delays it was 10:30 when he got back.  Emry slept leaning her head in his hand the whole way home.

Bonus video: It's good to be the little girl and have big brothers and a dad to push you around in their trucks.

Bonus picture: sibling love.  (This was after Kason bundled up and went outside and swept the leaves off the patio all on his own, he said it was like a Valentine's present)

Bonus Asher saying:  Isaac wasn't listening to Asher and so Asher shook his finger at Isaac and said loudly, "Daddy, you are DISOBEDIENTING me!"